holdingyourdrink

Here is my report, it's long!! But as I am still reeling from Verona (I think I will be for a little while longer!), I thought it was a perfect moment to write down my thoughts. It truly was a special event. To arrive in the city the day before the concert is really something special. Verona is not big, so walking around you are bound to meet many MFCers who also have just arrived and are shopping, grabbing something to eat or drink, or just wandering around. It warms my heart to see so many happy and familiar faces. It's a big warm embrace. We had planned to go to dinner with 50 MFCers on the Sunday evening close to the Arena di Verona, on the day the concert in the Teatro Filarmonico would have taken place. As we were getting ready, we read several tweets and messages that Mika was doing his soundcheck RIGHT NOW. Lucky that the Arena is an open air venue and we had the dinner reservation next to it! As fans are, we rushed over to see if we could catch a glimpse of him… .but we were also hungry! Some fans lost their appetite and stayed, whilst others had dinner in record time. Race against the clock !! Fortunately we were all able to catch him on his way out. He was very kind and took a moment to speak with us. I mentioned the virtual flower fan action and he smiled widely, said "that he thought it was very sweet". (Thumbs up for @TinyLove_CJ for the amazing idea !!) None of us had expected to see him the day before the concert, let alone get a chance to speak with him, that was such a lovely bonus. The day of the concert came and it flew by with sightseeing (who hasn't touched Juliet for “a little bit of love”?), Eating amazing Italian food (I am personally in love with gelato at Savoia and Risotto all'Amarone) and walking around with different MFCers. We were all grateful that we didn’t have to queue! At 5pm we met up with different fans for the planned fanaction by @Serenamiglio_, but as @mellody had already mentioned, it unfortunately took until 7pm before we could enter the arena to prepare everything. It was however really nice to meet fans I hadn’t seen before and several others came up to us to chat. The concert, oh what can I say what hasn’t already been said: it was simply extravagant. Mika really pulled out all the stops with the 100 voices of Gospel, several confetti canons, the soap bubbles, the smoke, the HUGE heart, the light effects, the crown, the cape… The venue was huge, but he was EVERYWHERE. I truly had the feeling he wanted to connect to the audience, to the fans. I have seen several artists perform live, but this is extremely rare if not unique to him. My favorite song was Elle Me Dit, him interacting with the gospel choir truly felt as if his mum was speaking to him! In the MFC IG Live a member of the 100 voices of Gospel actually confirmed this, which was very funny. His silly uncontrolled dance and the joy on his face was very contagious. Favorite moment(s): with every confetti canon that was fired off, another part of my inner child just came to the surface. With so many canons, you can imagine that I felt like a carefree 6 year old after the gig! Haha! After the concert, my friends and I rushed outside to catch a glimpse of Mika leaving. When he came up to me I asked him how he was feeling. He was again very kind and said: “Very good. We pulled it off! Glad we brought it to the Arena ". He signed (yet another) phonecase of mine with my latest artwork printed on it. I hope he doesn't get tired of it at some point, but so far he seemed happy to do it. Much later, as we were walking towards the strip of restaurants to get something to drink, a restaurant owner came up to our group and told with much pride that “THE Mika” was having dinner in the restaurant next to his. Well… What do you do as a fan? You kind of can't go back home if you know that your favourite popstar is RIGHT THERE. It's an internal battle with respecting his privacy and also not wanting to miss out. We decided to stay and feel the situation out. And since we were many, we actually just had a really good time chatting and laughing. Finally someone came out of the restaurant and it was… Andy! He truly is a very kind person, he immediately started talking to the fans in both Italian and English. I had already heard that he is very sweet to fans, but it was just heart warming to see with my own eyes. I think Mika is very lucky to have such a kind man by his side (just as Andy is also very lucky to have Mika). Not long after Mika came out. He took his time to speak to us, which made us feel a little less guilty that we had been waiting for him. He was very candid and again, very kind. It was a perfect way to end the evening, knowing we wouldn’t see him for a while. As he said himself: it is not "when", it is "what"!

Maybe he has been listing the countries where the crowd has been the loudest? But I think an Italian speaker can clarify this much better! And yes to me he clearly said Holland! I understood that live as well 🇳🇱🧡

Tim is also Mika’s musical director, so I can imagine he was rather there to coordinate things. Besides, Clement has been with Mika all of the tour and Tim wasn’t, so I can imagine to not change the routine up too much they let Tim help Mika coordinate with the choir etc.

He included a pic made by @tiibet!!!!!

In the train I watched the live back from yesterday - oh @dcdeb, we didn’t know you had gotten emotional! We truly couldn’t hear you! You can’t hear it back on the live, but it was super loud there. The atmosphere was however exactly as it was portrayed. I know you know this ❤️ You were thoroughly missed!

This one is still for sale! Just not through the fansale website anymore. Write me a PM when interested!

PLEASE do, I’m sure that will be his favourite flower by far

OMG is this a real flower

VERY happy

Thanks @TinyLove_CJfor coming up with the virtual flower fanaction! So very well done, it is perfect!!! I know we agreed on only one hashtag, but I also wanted to make sure he knew it was a virtual fanaction and it seems he did so happy to see he appreciates it so much! ❤️

I was somewhat surprised to read that, because he also is afraid of being mediocre. I guess it’s a little contradicting, but that’s normal in Mika-world

Oh wow. That indeed gives a clearer light of what Mika may have insinuated with the last sentence of the Italian interview that came out yesterday. It‘s truly meant in a humbling and eye opening way, not in a destructive sense of living.

Hello everyone! I have put up my: 3rd row, seat 28 for Arena di Verona this coming Monday for sale at fansale.it! Click the link below: https://www.fansale.it/fansale/mika-the-magic-piano-arene-show-spettacolare-tickets-6582720.htm

Loved the flower basket above all the other options on the website, I’m so happy you picked that one! It’s different and still equally beautiful ❤️

I really like this interpretation and I agree with you, I think that’s how he meant it.

Just read the interview - nope, not a language thing. He truly meant it literally

The right answer isn’t even among them!

Italian is a beautiful, but also an extremely expressive language, where the literal translation exaggerates the meaning behind it. The way how I would interpret this, is that he says “carpe diem” and appreciates every day, because he has experienced death on a very intimate level.

“Sorry, Could Not Resist” 😉

Yay! I have received all of the ticket money back as of today. It’s a strange feeling, going to Verona, knowing it’s a done deal: no more aftermath of having to run after your own money, it’s just the concert and it’s done for now. We don’t know what’s coming after and when… I know this is the problem any fan faces! But it’s just so surreal when you think about it.

Who wants to go runseeing with me? It’s an 7.7km run and it takes you to many sights in Verona!

But not an email from Ticketone? Maybe it didn’t go through.. the server was veeeeery busy taking all the requests…

No pizza and no prima piatti, I think it’s in the antipasti part of the menu 😅 (I know, I’m a unicorn 🦄)

True, but maybe not all songs are in French?

Wow! Wait! Is this the symphonic version of the song he leaked the other day from the studio? Meaning this is for the movie soundtrack and he will release the same song on his album…….or will both versions feature in the movie!? Or will both versions feature on his album!?! Mind blown!